


don't you dare

by behradtarazi



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Please Don't Hate Me, Self-Sacrifice, idk why i do these things to them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 08:37:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18961705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/behradtarazi/pseuds/behradtarazi
Summary: roy makes a sacrifice, and jason says some things he should have said a long, long time ago.





	don't you dare

here’s the thing about the red hood:

he’s only human.

jason can armor himself with as much anger and bravado as he wants, can curl his hands in to fists and fight like a whirlwind, but he’s still human.

he breaks.

he bleeds.

roy knows that better than most.

maybe that’s why he shoves jason out of the way, lets those bullets hit him like a freight train, the scarlet blood that blossoms in their wake barely showing on his suit.

maybe he doesn’t want to watch his best friend flicker and fade.

maybe he dies for love.

or maybe it is simply the adrenaline running through his veins, a kind of reckless inclination towards self-sacrifice.

maybe he wants to rest and thinks that this is the best way.

maybe he dies for self-loathing.

whichever it was, it ends the same:

roy, lying small and weak in jason’s arms, trying to stop his eyes from closing for the last time, a desperate fight that he knows he won’t win.

jason starts to put pressure on the wound, but roy pushes his hands away, a weak attempt that wouldn’t have worked if jason hadn’t let it.

“what’re you –“

“don’t, jaybird,” he whispers. “no point. you…you gotta go when you gotta go.”

“no.” jason’s not crying, he’s not going to fucking cry, he can’t, because roy is _fine, he’s going to be fine._

he has to be.

he has to be.

jason doesn’t know what he’ll do if he isn’t.

“don’t talk like that, harper, don’t you fucking dare. you’re not dying on me, not now. you’re not –“ his voice fails him, and roy puts a hand over his, giving it a light squeeze.

“it’s okay. ‘s okay,” he says, because god knows that it always has been and always will be easier to comfort someone else than it is to focus on his own pain, the sickening feeling of being covered in his own blood.

“no, no, it’s not,” jason insists, a kind of heartbreaking desperation in his eyes that he’s always been too stubborn and guarded to let anyone see. “you can’t – you can’t, ‘cause i…i _love you_ , you stupid son of a bitch.”

roy’s attempt at a grin turns into a grimace, and he closes his eyes for a moment. “should’ve told me earlier, idiot,” he forces out, the pain as clear in his voice as the fear had been in jason’s. “i would’ve kissed you senseless. i love you too, j-jaybird. always…always have.”

jason has to hold back a sob, pulling roy even closer to him, ignoring the blood already covering his hands. that doesn’t matter. _roy_ is what matters, he’s the only thing that matters right now. “so _stay alive_ ,” he almost begs, and roy can only shake his head a little.

“i can’t,” he says softly. “i can’t. ‘m sorry, baby. i’m so sorry.”

jason starts to speak again, but he stops himself when he realizes that he can no longer see the rise and fall of roy’s chest, a dark kind of panic creeping into his heart.

this isn’t happening. no. this is just a nightmare, because roy doesn’t love him and roy isn’t dead and when he wakes up in a few moments everything will be back to normal –

he doesn’t wake up.

“roy.”

the silence is worse than any wound he’s ever felt.

“ _harper._ ”

he should give up, he knows, accept it, but he _can’t_ , can’t lose him, can’t bring himself to go on living in a world without him in it.

“ _roy, please._ ”

there’s no response.

there will never be one again.


End file.
